


Quotidien

by neveroffanon



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Gen, season 1 through Edrisa's eyes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:34:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23913121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neveroffanon/pseuds/neveroffanon
Summary: Edrisa's life takes a new turn after meeting a certain profiler.
Relationships: Edrisa Tanaka & Dani Powell, Gil Arroyo & Edrisa Tanaka, Gil Arroyo & Malcolm Bright, Malcolm Bright & Edrisa Tanaka, Malcolm Bright & Jessica Whitly
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	1. Meet Cute

Bright was curious. Focused, driven, obviously intelligent. Yet, the leaps he made— from their shared observations of the mode and method and outcome— to a damning conclusion, those were genius. Since meeting him, and figuring out just who it was— living, breathing, and talking in her exam room— she’d been slammed with work. She was the only M.E. for their zone, the amount of work that could suddenly appear, and the paperwork that came with it, was nothing new. But all she wanted to think about was Bright. How nice he was, and handsome, and of course, oddly slender. 

That last thought soured the brightness of her recollection. Edrisa stopped the rolling train of her thoughts with an effort and flicked a look around the papers stacked into towers on her desk, Marquisha bent over one table, Todd pushing another gurney into the room, Sandra at his heels. it was at least 48 hours until she could honestly see him again. Edrisa sighed, scrubbed her hands against her eyes, and stood. 

“Alright you guys. Let’s get three more exams done before we call it a night, ok.” Edrisa called to her team. A chorus of yeah echoed around the room. 

* * *

“So we’ve got our cause of death. I’ve already submitted the report, but I wanted you all to know sooner than later.” Edrisa paused, listening. “No, I don’t have any doubt it was the sledgehammer. If I had any doubts, I wouldn’t have called, clearly.” 

Detective Malone, Cindy, as she almost always insisted Edrisa called her, though not today, ended the call by hanging up. Edrisa pulled the receiver away from her ear, dropped it in the cradle, and gave it a nasty look. 

“Not my fault you thought it was the pipe,” she grumbled. Sighing, she leaned back in her chair and tugged her glasses off her nose. She’d held out for weeks. Literally, it had been weeks since she’d last logged in. They were probably thinking that she was quitting the chat. Or that she was a cold case herself. Part of her, a big part to be fair to herself, knew it wasn’t a good idea. The other part of her knew that if she kept it to herself and it came out later, that she had met him, worked with him and then kept it to herself, none of them would ever be friends again. She would be blocked. Which would suck. 

Edrisa cast a glance at her phone. She had the app downloaded already, all she had to do was unlock her phone and open it. Her fingers were almost tingling with it, and before she could talk herself out of it, her hand shot forward grabbed the phone, flew through her passcode and opened the app and onto the general chat. Where, it seemed, everyone was talking about some one-percenter committing triple homicide. 

Edrisa winced, reading the commentary. She didn’t normally go into the general chat. Most of the people there were a little more bloodthirsty than she could take. Today, after the news had been full of Berkhead and his wife and the three women he’d murdered, the chat was blowing up with speculation about who else he could’ve killed. 

_Wbk what Berkhead and his type were about. He takes from the people of this city, tears down their homes, and makes it so they can’t ever afford to come back to their neighborhoods._

_I heard that he even tried to kill a police officer. He was into the 50 shades type of thing and was going to try it on her before killing her._

_Wut? That wasn’t in the news. Where’d you hear that???_

Edrisa scrolled a little further until no new messages appeared, and stopped, stomach twisting. Rubbing a hand over her middle, she ruminated for a moment on the breakfast burrito. There’s been tomatoes on it—always a recipe for disaster, and she’d gone and eaten it anyway. And now she was sick, the way she got when the world she was used to, crossed with the world everyone else lived in. She knew that Powell and JT and Gil had made the arrest. Berkhead’s victims lay in the freezer outside her office, and Berkhead himself was in the hospital. He wasn’t going to be able to act on anything, much less hurt anyone. The waves her stomach was making didn’t seem to care though. 

She sucked in a breath and held it, counting. 

“Dr. Tanaka, we’ve got another call from the fifteen. They’d like us on scene to make the assessment,” Sandra called from the other side of the room, before she’d counted past five. 

Edrisa let the air out silently, collecting herself for a moment, thumb on one hand closing the app. Malcolm Bright living and breathing, and working with the NYPD, was going to have to keep being a secret. 


	2. Boo Hiss

“You doing alright?” 

Edrisa glanced up, met Detective Powell’s eyes, and looked away. Her hand spasmed around the order sheet Dani had just given her, the edge almost crushed beneath her fingers. She let it go, ducking her head, fingers worrying at the edges to try and smooth away the crinkles. A hand inserted itself between her and the paper, tugging it away gently, and pressing it flat to the desk. 

“It’s all good. Snakes aren’t, well they aren’t for everyone, y’know.” 

Edrisa laughed, the feeling of it burning in her throat. “I think we can clearly put me down in the _not_ category.” She swallowed down the embarrassment and sat upright in her chair again. “The tox screen will be done soon, so I’ll give the desk a call when it’s back.” She tried on a smile, bright as she could make it. 

Powell raised an eyebrow at her and nodded. She turned to leave and stopped, hesitating for a moment before quietly speaking turning around and speaking, “Don’t sweat it, yeah? You did what you were supposed to do. Stayed cool and didn’t move until your team had you cleared.” 

The words hung in the air between them, until Edrisa nodded. Then Powell gave her a smile and walked away. Behind her, Edrisa drooped onto her desk, head coming to rest on the cool metal. It wasn’t the snake. Well, the snake hadn’t been great. The coil of it around her thigh had been horrifying. What had been worse was fainting. That phase of her life was supposed to be over. Done with. 

If there was a saving grace, any positive at all, it was waking up to Malcolm Bright blinking down at her. The sun sculpted around his face and glinted off his eyes, and it was no wonder that she hadn’t been able to answer him when he asked if she was alright. Then she was being whisked away to make sure she hadn’t been bitten after all, and that warm sunshine was gone. It, for lack of a better word, sucked. 

She knocked her forehead against the desk for a second, and then groaned as her phone vibrated in her pocket. Since she’d been checked out that meant her emergency contact would’ve been notified. Who else would call, twelve times no less, than her ex. This was the thirteenth call and if she didn’t pick up, it would probably turn into thirty. She pressed a hand into her pocket and slid the phone out, pressing it to her ear. 

“Hello Richard,” Edrisa said, after checking the number just in the off chance it wasn’t him. “How kind of you to call. As you can tell from my voice, I am doing well, do not require your assistance, nor your presence.”

“Hello to you too, babe. I wanted to check on you. I thought you’d been doing better.” 

Edrisa grit her teeth, “I am doing fine. It was just regular old stress induced vasovagal syncope. Now you’ve checked, you should be happy. Have a good day!” She pulled the phone away from her ear, finger swiping to end the call even though she could hear Richard still talking. 

“Smarmy butthead,” she muttered down at the phone. Head dropping to her desk again, Edrisa closed her eyes. The team had everything handled. She could rest her eyes for a few moments. The cool metal of the desk slowly warmed beneath her skin, and Edrisa tilted her head, from one side to the other until her glasses slid off her nose and dropped into her lap. There, actually, wasn’t any time to rest. The tox screen didn’t need any input from her, but the autopsies most certainly would. They’d have to be careful, too, that there wouldn’t be any more surprises waiting for them inside the body cavities. For that, she couldn’t just leave the team to handle it by themselves. Heaving a huge sigh, Edrisa levered herself upright again and stood. 

Being sure of their safety was her job as their team leader. And that took priority over ex-husbands, embarrassment, and anxiety attacks.

* * *

“Obvious fracturing to the sphenoid and frontal regions along the right side of the face, with additional fractures at ethmoidal bone. Victim has no other signs of injury to head or neck area, other than contusions due to the fall. Along the upper body,” Edrisa shifted the microphone, raising her shoulder to press it closer. Circling around the gurney, she peered close at the skin victim’s skin. Discoloration, swelling—all the hallmarks of severe impact trauma, but there was something niggling at her. 

Stepping back, Edrisa folded her arms across her chest and tried to relax. Performing autopsies on those who had committed suicide always brought her to places she didn’t want to go. They pulled at her attention, like those ghosts in Super Mario 3, distracted her, made it hard to be in the moment and not dwell. For this man, however, Gil had called her directly and asked for to examine him and rule out any chance of foul play. She had to do it, even if all she wanted to do was take the team for a thoroughly distracting karaoke battle, then go beat Mr. Malone at poker at the nursing home, and run until the past couldn’t catch up to her.

She couldn’t do that. Not when Gil had called for a favor. Leaning forward again, eyes scanning over the body, Edrisa evaluated the body, shifting one arm to the side. “Along the lateral upper body, a circumscribed mark, erythematous, and elevated at the juncture of left pectoral area and left axilla,” Edrisa pressed a finger around the mark, mind tumbling over the question of what it could be. “It could be the remnant of a hypersensitivity reaction. Though it is curiously placed.” 

Edrisa stopped again, wondering for the first time why Gil had called to ask her to rush this autopsy ahead of the others in the queue. She looked again at the swelling to the face, and pressed a hand onto the victim’s chin to peer into his mouth. His lips seemed swollen, as well as his tongue. She rocked back on her heels, hands dropping to her sides.

“Marquisha,” Edrisa called, shucking the gloves she’d been wearing, and pulling the microphone away from her mouth. She slid it into the pocket of her coat and worked her fingers at the buttons. 

Marquisha crossed the room, head tilted in question. “Did you need a hand?”

“Yeah. We’re going to proceed with the rest of the autopsy. If you’ll assist,” Edrisa glanced up at her, nodding when the other woman did, “we’ll get this done that much quicker.”

“Sure. Let me get you set up,” Marquisha replied, already moving to set out the trays.

* * *

“Come in, Edrisa,” Gil waved her into his office and pulled the door shut after her. Hugging her report folder between her arms, Edrisa hovered in front of Gil’s desk. 

He walked around her, raising an eyebrow. “You had something to report?” he asked, probing. 

After a moment, Edrisa relaxed her grip on the folder and laid it flat atop Gil’s desk. He picked it up and slowly sat, eyes flickering through the pages. Edrisa bit the corner of her lip, trying to contain her questions. When Gil looked her again, done reading, she drew breath for the barrage of questions that had been eating at her. 

“How did you know to ask for an autopsy? I wasn’t on scene, of course, but the report filed didn’t mention any suspicion that the victim had been murdered. I mean it is possible to miss things and I know you always prefer to be thorough, but this was quite inspired. Do you know how rare it is for me to examine people who’ve died because of anaphylaxis? Almost never. I nearly didn’t pursue it, but then I thought that you must have had a reason. What was the reason?”

Gil rubbed a hand over his beard. “Malcolm was the reason. He had a suspicion that Liam wasn’t actually the killer. He and Dani ran it down,” he gestured at her, “and you confirmed it.”

“Oh,” Edrisa replied, frozen. 

“Oh?” Gil questioned. He closed the folder and slid it across the desk to her. “Thought you’d be a little more enthused,” he went on, smiling a little.

“Well, of course, it is interesting. I nearly get bitten by a snake, the victim dies after being injected with venom. There’s almost a poetry to it. Gross, frightening poetry, but still poetry,” Edrisa said. 

“Don’t forget Bright,” Gil replied, smile disappearing. “He got bitten.”

“By a snake? When? Is he alright?” Edrisa jumped to her feet, heart suddenly racing.

Gil stood and came around the table, one hand dropping firm and warm on her shoulder. “Bright is fine Edrisa. He and Dani were the ones to run down the perp, remember?” He pressed her back into the chair, and perched on the corner of the desk, and leaned toward her.

“You must be pretty on edge still, huh?” he asked.

“Moderately?” Edrisa replied, not liking how querulously the word emerged. She shrugged, “But I’m fine. And now that the perp is in custody, things are even better.” 

“If you need to take some time, you can, you know. Might be good for you to relax for at least one day,” Gil said. 

Edrisa blinked up at him. “I don’t think I’ll need it, but thanks.” She stood slowly, pressing the folder between her forearms again, and moved away toward the door. 

“You did good, Dr. Tanaka,” Gil called from behind her. “Fieldwork isn’t easy. Be proud of yourself.”

At the door, one hand already on the knob, Edrisa stopped. There was something to be said for being seen through so clearly. So as she pulled the door open, she turned a little and smiled back at Gil, and tried to get across what was always hard to convey. Gil was one of the better bosses she’d had. He didn’t want to really chat about crime the way she did, but he trusted her in the field, not just the exam room. And he never, ever made her feel like she couldn’t handle the work. Despite the anxiety and the fainting.

“Thank you,” Edrisa said, finally, and stepped out in the hallway.


End file.
